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It's been a bit of a lonely vigil lately for Mark Knoller of CBS News. At the White House and on Twitter, he's pushing for wider press access to President Obama's fundraisers -- so far with no luck.

Obama last week had six fundraisers on the road, and only two were open to radio and TV coverage. Four were open only to the print pooler.

The print pool was on duty in San Francisco when a table full of demonstrators broke into song to protest Pfc. Bradley Manning's treatment in custody.

That means for a highly newsworthy event, reporters had to rely on written pool reports -- while excellent, not sufficient to the needs of radio and television -- then wait for attendees to upload, sell or circulate video off their phones.

It's no way to do business -- especially covering a candidate who prides himself on transparency, in a highly consequential campaign, where he's expected to raise a billion dollars for reelection. Many of his events are in hotels and restaurants.

It's in the administration's interests, however, to limit television pictures and other coverage of the president campaigning -- their position is that he is too busy running the country to worry about politics.

Obama tomorrow heads to New York to raise more money. As Knoller notes, Obama is the president and a candidate for reelection. Spotty, partial access to his remarks shouldn't be the standard, and Knoller raised the issue at the briefing.

"Can you tell us how you decide which of these fundraisers are going to be open to full coverage and which ones -- " Knoller asked Jay Carney.

"Mark, I believe we have a policy in place that we’ve had for a long time in this administration that demonstrates -- " Carney replied.

"Yes, but it doesn’t seem consistent," Knoller responded.

As previously noted, the issue of transparency at the White House has become very touchy, on both sides. The Obama administration frequently describes itself as the most transparent in history. Reporters working with limited and often shrinking access have a different view.

In keeping with earlier tussles over access, the White House tends to set a low bar by saying their record is better than the Bush administration.

"What we do provide is access to these fundraisers in a way that I think is certainly as great as previous presidents, if not greater, and that we believe that’s important," Carney said. "But how each one is decided I think is based on the ways that we have approached this in the past."

Fundraisers are a timely concern because Obama is doing so many of them, and his remarks are newsworthy in part because they help frame his approach to reelection.

In addition to limiting access, the campaign has declined to share with reporters how much money Obama is raising, although those figures eventually must be reported to the FEC.

Knoller notes on Twitter that in 2004, former President George W. Bush did 49 fundraisers, of which nine were closed to press.

At an Obama fundraiser in Los Angeles last week, actor Tom Hanks heckled the press pool, saying, "Hey, this is a private event."